


Afoot and Light-Hearted

by fypical



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Drug Use, M/M, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-27
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 18:24:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/701270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fypical/pseuds/fypical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU. Gabriel Novak met Sam Winchester during his second year of university, and he hasn't looked back since.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afoot and Light-Hearted

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road". This was originally intended as my contribution to the 2012/2013 Gabriel Big Bang, but I am as always awful with deadlines, so I'm publishing as I go instead.

“Look, Jess, I—”

It’s March of his second year, and Gabriel shouldn’t be listening to the conversation he’s listening to right now, because he’s pretty sure it’s of a personal nature, and the giant talking into the phone with a distressed expression looks like he could probably crush Gabriel.

He’s listening anyway, because he’s never really been one for rules. He doesn’t know if it’s a fight or an aggressive agreement, until the kid – because despite being enormous, he’s younger than Gabriel, probably – huffs an exasperated sigh.

“Yeah,” he says shortly, “yeah, no, I get it. It’s fine. No, I’m still okay for this weekend.”

He snaps the phone off, shoving it into his pocket, then catches Gabriel staring at him. Gabriel should probably find it awkward, but he doesn’t. He just raises an eyebrow, and pointedly goes back to his book. After two minutes of pretending to read, he can tell the kid’s still there, staring at him.

“That sounded like a fun conversation,” he comments absently, not really focusing on the paragraph he’s supposed to be analyzing.

Besides, unnaturally tall and distraught freshmen are infinitely more interesting than three thousand year-old theses on why sculptures look the way they do. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the kid’s face twist into something indescribably bitchy; Gabriel can’t help but laugh.

“I don’t think it’s that funny,” the kid snaps, and Gabriel raises an eyebrow, tucking the book back into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder as he stands.

“Probably not, but the face you’re making’s hilarious,” he points out, then offers his hand to shake. “Gabriel Milton. Wanna coffee?”

The kid stares for a moment, then takes Gabriel’s hand in a surprisingly loose grip – maybe he’s just in shock – and introduces himself after another moment.

“Uh. Sam Winchester?” He says it like a question, and Gabriel decides he already likes Sam, regardless of the vaguely invasive overtones of their meeting. “Do…am I buying?”

Gabriel laughs again, decides that they’re going to be fast friends, and shakes his head.

“On me.”

Sam looks pensive for a moment, then shrugs and shifts his bag slightly. Gabriel takes it as a yes.

The coffee at the campus café is unaccountably shitty, but he figures, after two hours of trying to work out whether pre-law and art history have anything at all in common, that the company’s pretty okay.

Gabriel’s been keeping to himself lately, mostly because everyone in his graduating class knows that he and Kali are at each other’s’ throats and not in the sexy way. He used to be almost scared of her, with her sharp wit and flaring temper, and then he’d realized that it was at least a little bit of a shell, like him talking too much and making bad jokes.

Gabriel’s not sure who or what made her so harsh  to people she doesn’t know, but he still likes the way she curls up in the chair in her living room with her mythology books and the way she’s quiet and gentle when she’s half-asleep. He could do without the fighting, though, because all that disappears as quickly as it’d come, and instead he gets incredibly well-placed insults and cold shoulders.

Sam’s a nice break from shutting himself away and engaging in screaming matches.  
  
In October, Gabriel learns the hard way that Sam hates Halloween; he doesn’t really know why, but the look on Sam’s face suggests that he probably doesn’t want to know.

He doesn’t really care, either, because regardless of Sam’s grumbling and scowling, Gabriel’s got him in a costume; the scowling and half-hearted one word answers even work with the painstaking zombie makeup that Gabriel’s covered his face with. Gabriel, for his part, spent half an hour trying to convince Kali to be the Leia to his Han Solo. They’re not together anymore, but they’re sort of friendly, so he’d figured it’d be worth a shot.

Instead, she’s going as her namesake – which is a little alarming in its accuracy – and Gabriel’s genuinely solo.

The party’s a bust; a frat house that looks like it’s about to fall down, and a truly frightening drug-to-booze-to-people ratio.

The cops come screaming around the corner as Gabriel hauls Sam and Kali and Balthazar and Kali’s new pompous Norwegian boyfriend down the stairs.

Instead of being reasonable and proving that they were just leaving because of all the illegal things happening, they break into a run.

Gabriel’s pretty sure only Balthazar got caught, and he probably talked himself out of it with his charm and the fact that he can pretend flawlessly that he doesn’t understand a lick of English.

It’s a bald-faced lie, of course, but that doesn’t seem to bother Balthazar, and it certainly doesn’t bother Gabriel. He and Sam and Kali end up at Kali’s boyfriend’s place – well, his parents’ place, really, but Gabriel’s hoping they’re out of town – and Kali hauls Baldur up the stairs towards the bedrooms.

Gabriel watches them, feeling inexplicably bitter; he’s never liked Baldur, but the fact that Baldur’s also now dating Kali makes it worse. He’s pretty sure he isn’t over her yet, even if he did hook up with Crowley (he’s not sure that even counts since he’s been keeping it a secret from everyone).

“Uh,” Sam says, and Gabriel glances over at him; he looks deeply uncomfortable with their current situation, and Gabriel’s just out of it enough to think that maybe he should try and seduce the kid.

“I’ll take the couch, I think Baldur said there was a guest room,” Sam suggests quietly, making his way toward the couch. The moment of consideration’s broken, and Gabriel can’t help the disdainful expression that crosses his face as he shoves past Sam and flops down on the couch; it’s almost too short even for him, so he doesn’t really know how Sam was planning on sleeping there. Sam glares down at him, but Gabriel just shrugs.

“Pretty sure the guest bed’s more giant-appropriate,” he mumbles, tugging the artful throw blanket over himself and pressing his face into the decorative pillow. The last thing he remembers before passing out is the sensation of someone tucking him in.

Sam’s already gone by the time Kali wakes him up the next morning.


End file.
